Evaluación de Impactos Ambientales

The emphasis on nature in ELH, as illustrated in the above discussion on kigo, has resulted in the

62 Championed by early English haiku pioneers such as D.T Suzuki and R.H. Blyth who gave

prominence to the Zen-diffused thinking that haiku should be written about a directly observed scene without abstraction or imagination, shasei-style haiku has predominated in global

editorial selection since the 1950s. Shasei embraces the ideal of ari no mama (depiction “as is”) and kosho yubi (“noble grace”) which Jones likened to Hemingway’s “grace under pressure.”

The comparison with Hemingway is not remote, for Shiki’s work often shows the same terseness, the same unflinching observation of hard fact . . . and the same stoic

acceptance of it (Jones, 1995a, p. 55).

Gilbert (2008) sampled two leading American haiku journals in 2003 and found that shasei- style haiku accounted for about 90 per cent of the poems in those journals. Typically, this nature sketch is written in two parts, containing a juxtaposition of images or an internal contrast. This stems from the Japanese use of verbal punctuation or ‘cutting’ (called kireji), used in one-line Japanese haiku to emphasise a ‘gap’ between two images. In Western haiku, which are mostly written in three lines, the juxtaposition is usually signaled by line breaks, sometimes with punctuation (eg. ellipsis) in order to create greater depth and resonance in the haiku. To Jones (1992), resonance refers to:

A wide range of haiku effects, including internal comaparison, fragrance (kaori or nioi), echo (hibiki), and ultimately the use of kigo or season words. All of the above are

instances of a single device whereby objects, situations and events that have no obvious or necessary connection are nonetheless presented as essentially related (Jones, 1992, p. 10).

Before discussing how Australian poets have approached, interpreted and transformed some of these techniques of haiku, it may be instructive, if only for comparison purposes, briefly to consider how other non-Japanese countries have encountered haiku. The observations we can make about the type of haiku being written in other countries, and how sensibly they have adopted and adapted the Japanese kigo system and other techniques, may help us in better apprehending the trends in Australian haiku, perhaps even uncovering any cross-cultural

normative practices, as well as the distinctive approaches, if they exist, of Australian haiku poets.

Swedish Haiku

In 2006, the Swedish Haiku Society released a bi-lingual issue of their journal, Haiku to

commemorate the Second European Congress of haiku which was to be held in Sweden in 2007. Many of the haiku submitted were in English only, some already having appeared in English

63 language haiku magazines. The collection also contains translations of Swedish haiku into

English, alongside the originals.

Before looking at some individual examples, some general observations can be made about the collection of poems in the anthology. In terms of form, every haiku in the book (almost 100 in total) is written in three lines. Almost all are written in the ‘short-long-short’ format, with a good proportion of 5-7-5. There are no one-line haiku and very few senryu in the collection. The majority of poems contain one or more seasonal references and the kireji is liberally used. There is also a strong preference for Shiki-like objective realism, with many of the haiku appearing to be based on the author’s own direct experience of nature. The use of the cut also puts in motion one of the other bedrocks of non-Japanese haiku – juxtaposition. To many haiku practitioners in the west, haiku succeed and fail on the strength of their internal contrast. On the surface then, the Swedes appear to be adhering to a traditional approach by strongly favouring a three-line, juxtapositional structure in their observations of, predominately, natural phenomena.

In relation to the thematic content, some observations can be made about the seasonal indicators used by Swedish poets. Much of the Swedish population lives near a body of water. The shared experiences of people’s relationships to lakes, rivers, shores, ponds, boating, fishing and, of course, ice, is reflected in the haiku they write about it, including the following examples:

Inte ett ljud hörs – Without a sound

Den nytjärade ekan the fresh-tarred rowing-boat

Slukas av natten slips into the night

(Johan Bergstad, Svenska Haiku Sällskapet tidskrift, 11/2006, p. 9).

morgonsol morning sun

ett tåg glider fram a train glides

genom snölandskapet through the snowscape

Månsken moonshine

en ensam narciss a sole narcissus

speglar sig i dammen reflects in the pond

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Seglet rött The sail is red

ett örgonblick for a moment

i solnedgången at sunset

(Kaj Falkman, Svenska Haiku Sällskapet tidskrift, 11/2006, p. 10).

Barnet betraktar A child considering

senvintersolens effekt the power of late winter sun

snögubbens knäfall a snowman, kneeling

(Madeleine Ågren, Svenska Haiku Sällskapet tidskrift, 11/2006, p. 28).

This is as it should be. This is what is going on in Sweden and this is what the poets see. For the purposes of our discussion, the haiku written in Sweden reflects its geography and natural surroundings. Swedes are writing predominantly in the shasei mould, sketching the world in which they find themselves. The local surroundings give these poems a local flavour which make them recognisably, if not distinctively, Swedish.

From the above examples it is easy to see why kigo, if viewed simply as a seasonal indicator, is so easily shared across cultures despite diverse geographical contexts. All of these scenes, despite their obvious connection to the Swedish landscape, are recognisable across a wide range of cultures. Most North Americans and northern Europeans, for example, could relate to the references to snow. While the seasonal indicators provide comparable thematic contexts, the actual season they indicate is less clear. In Sweden, there is a strong theme of the transformation and interweaving of the seasons. For example, in parts of Sweden it can snow for more than half the year – which has a large impact on the kind of kigo or seasonal indicators that can be used. For example, in Bergstad’s poem, the season is not obvious. Boating is traditionally a summer activity, but it is not uncommon for boats to be taken out in the spring to take advantage of favourable fishing conditions. The darkness of the night in this poem could easily place it in the spring, given the long days usually associated with northern European summers. Similarly, the snowscape in Sverredal’s poem could be found anywhere in Sweden –in the middle of winter or well into spring.

As mentioned previously, kigo in Japan carry cultural connotations that cannot be

apprehended fully outside of Japan. Japan is commonly regarded as a homogenous country in which kigo has played the role of the symbolic word, full of shared emotional meaning which is highly metaphorical (Michiko, 1996). Looking at these examples of Swedish haiku, it is tempting

65 to draw some conclusions about a deeper, cultural association that these poems might be

pointing to, including the role played by natural phenomena. It is arguable that Sweden’s geography affords it a level of cultural centrality and, like Japan’s, many of its rituals and

holidays still relate to the marking of the seasons – and this may be a possible source of a shared context between the two countries. But this is a question for another study.

For the purposes of this study, this small sample of Swedish poems highlights the popularity and potential pitfalls of adapting the kigo system. It also shows that Swedish haiku, to this point, has not strayed far from haiku’s traditional values.